After a devastating loss at home against the Nashville Predators, their first at home in regulation, the Avs bounced back fashionably to secure a 5-2 win over Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.

Parker Kelly tips home a Cale Makar shot just under the six-minute mark of the first period to start off the scoring at Ball Arena. This is Parker Kelly’s first goal since the team’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on January 6th.

The Avs lost the advantage of going into the first intermission with a lead thanks to a very controversial tripping call on Scott Wedgewood, and Washington’s power play converted to make it 1-1. That’s how the first period will end.

The second period scoring is led by a Nathan MacKinnon power play goal. The Avs’ power play has been converting on a much more consistent basis, which, as many on the team have mentioned, speaks volumes to the talent this man-advantage unit possesses.

Josh Manson rips a shot from the blue line just a few minutes later that rebounds off of Charlie Lindgren’s pads, and Victor Olofsson cleans up to give the Avs the 3-1 lead.

A quick goal from Ethen Frank just seconds later brings the Capitals back within one, but the Avs still head into the third period with a 3-2 lead.

The Avs just laid it on from there. A questionable goaltender interference call waves off a Cale Makar goal, but Artturi Lehkonen responds not long after with a goal of his own to make it 4-2. MacKinnon adds another insurance goal with just 3:30 remaining in regulation, and the Avs CAP (pun intended) this one off with a 5-2 victory.

What is goaltender interference?

Of the three goaltender interference calls the Avs have had challenged against them this season, only one of them has gone in their favor…

That may not seem like a huge statistic, but given some of the other calls that have also benefited other teams off of Jared Bednar‘s own challenges as well, it seems a little preposterous that there is not yet a clear-cut definition of goaltender interference.

Martin Necas is pushed into the crease by Matt Roy, and Charlie Lindgren makes a show of moving laterally across the crease for a goal he was likely never going to save in the first place, both his glove and blocker coming off in the process. Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery challenges for goaltender interference after calling a timeout to take a look at the footage, and the goal is overturned.

Necas is unable to break away from Roy and incidentally knocks Lindgren’s stick, but while Necas may have been in the crease, it looked like the handle of Lindgren’s stick was outside of the blue paint, and therefore, out of his domain… which makes this call even less sensible.

Also… What is tripping?

This entire takeaways section could very well be called “Bailey’s crash-outs,” because what the heck do you mean this was called a trip on Scott Wedgewood?

Anthony Beauvillier skates into Wedgewood’s stick as he goes to guard the near post. The stick falls from Wedgewood’s hand, and Beauvillier steps on it, then falls over… yet Wedgewood gets called for a trip?

I’d understand if there’s a specific tripping motion as Beauvillier makes contact with Wedgewood’s stick, but that’s not the case.

What makes this even worse is that the Capitals capitalize (ha ha) on the power play opportunity from this call.

Avs postgame pod